Wire or cable is typically provided from a foundry in a form of a spool or coil having a predetermined number of lineal feet. Such a configuration allows for relatively easy storage and transportation of the wire, but it is often necessary to reduce the coil wire into individual lengths of straight wire for commercial purposes and ultimate use. The coils of wire are therefore often fed into a machine which not only cuts the wire into shorter strips, but also reduces the twist or curvilinear shape which the wire tends to assume due to being coiled. Such a system is disclosed in copending application Ser. No. 08/627935, which has been allowed but currently no patent number has been assigned, to the present assignee, and expressly incorporated by reference herein.
With such a system, the coil is placed onto an uncoiling mechanism which is either driven to feed the lead end of the coil to the wire cutting apparatus, or which is rotatable to allow the lead end of the coil to be pulled to the wire cutting machine, and thereby allow the coil to rotate on the uncoiler. With many systems, once the coil is exhausted, the wire cutting machine is temporarily inoperable as a new coil must be loaded onto the uncoiler.
As with many volume production processes, this period of downtime directly relates to a loss in production and thus loss in profits. Various attempts have been devised to provide a means of continuously feeding the wire to a wire cutting apparatus and thereby avoiding downtime. One such example is provided in a Z-shaped configuration having parallel mandrels mounted on a turntable. A wire coil is placed on one mandrel and the lead end of the coil is pulled to a wire cutting apparatus. As the wire is being pulled, the tail end of the active coil is positioned to be in abutting relationship with the lead end of the idle coil placed on the other mandrel. The tail end of the active coil and the lead end of the idle coil are then welded together and when the active coil is exhausted, the pulling force of the cutting machine causes the carousel to rotate and thereby makes the idle mandrel the active mandrel when the active coil is exhausted. The process then can be continued by loading another coil onto the now idle mandrel and continuing the welding process.
Although such a system successfully avoids periods of downtime, it necessarily requires a means by which the tail end of the active coil and lead end of the idle coil can be physically manipulated to be in abutting relationship for the welding to take place. Given the fact that these coils are often in excess of 2 tons in weight, and the coils are often exhausted in a period of twenty minutes, the operators of the system are forced to manually position the coils which is often beyond the physical abilities of the average operator. Even if the operator is extraordinarily strong and quick, periods of downtime can be encountered if the slightest of delays are allowed to occur or if an operator of less extraordinary strength is operating the machine.